While they have mainstream jobs by day, in their free time, Ms. Howe, aka "Puke Face," Ms. Bewsee, aka "Slam Grier," and Ms. Madden, aka "Mad'N Dangerous," skate hard and deliver punishing body blows to roller-skating opponents as members of the Worcester Roller Derby league.

Worcester Roller Derby is hosting the third annual "All Eight on the Floor" flat-track B-team tournament for 12 New England and New York women's teams Saturday and Sunday at Horgan Arena.

"A lot of people think of roller derby as booty shorts and fishnet stockings," Ms. Howe said. "There is still an element of that subculture — people like to have fun. But it's an endurance sport, you need to be fit, you bust your a--."

Ms. Howe, who is also a triathlete, said she took up roller derby two years ago because she thought it was a "cool, full-contact sport," of which there are few for women.

She spends nine to 12 hours a week with her team, the Worcester Warriors, at their Suffolk Street warehouse training facility and competing around the region.

Ms. Bewsee, one of the Worcester league's founders and a skater on its Warheads team, said she got into roller derby when her daughter went off to college.

"Some empty nesters take up pottery. I took up roller derby," she joked.

She said she co-founded the league a few years ago when the number of Worcester-area participants in another league grew to a critical mass.

The league has two adult teams: the 15-member Warriors, its "varsity" team, which competed in the tournament, and the Warheads, its "junior varsity" team. Some members skate on both teams, but everyone has to try out each year.

There's also a junior team for girls ages 10 to 17.

Ms. Bewsee said the sport has gotten away from tutus and fishnets in favor of a more intimidating look, reflecting the tough physicality of the competition.

"I don't know anyone who hasn't left practice in tears," she said, describing the mental and physical challenges.

The goal of the sport is for a team's jammer to make her way past the other team's four blockers in a series of fast-paced, two-minute jams around the painted concrete rink floor. The more blockers a jammer passes, the more points she scores for her team.

Skaters use their bodies to defensively block the other team's jammer, while also helping to push their own jammer through the opposing blockers.

There's no hitting to the head, to the back or to the knees. You can't use forearms or elbows to hit your opponents. But you can use your own teammates to block the others.

"It's the fastest growing sport in the United States and it is a sport," Ms. Madden said. "We take it very seriously."

She said, "Quite truthfully, it was the first place where I didn't feel like a weirdo for loving the things I love, for being a little geeky, for loving Star Wars. It's an underground sport with a lot of counterculture stuff."

Manning her Nashua, New Hampshire- and New Orleans-based Bruised Boutique booth for roller derby skates and gear, owner Allison Trela, 32, of Lowell, said the sport has taken off because women are looking for camaraderie and roller derby allows women of all shapes and sizes to be strong and athletic.

Skating for the Boston Derby Dames under the name "Dee Stortion," Ms. Trela also founded the New Hampshire Roller Derby league.

"You gain 100 new best friends. It's hard to find that after college," Ms. Trela said. "It's fast-paced and fun and the women are bad-a--ed."

She likened the trend in women's roller derby's popularity to skateboarding, moving from the underground to the mainstream.

Contact Susan Spencer at susan.spencer@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanSpencerTG.